Christine Quinn slams Walmart health care cuts

After a brief flirtation with Walmart earlier this year, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn returned to her old self Friday, issuing a statement excoriating the retailer for making cuts to its employee health care offerings.

The speaker said she was “disheartened” by the changes, which include a substantial rollback in benefits for future part-timers and steep hikes in premiums for new full-time workers.

“Walmart is once again showing blatant disregard for the well-being of its workforce,” Ms. Quinn said in the statement. “By refusing to extend basic health care benefits, the company is demonstrating that they prefer to force their employees into the public health care system. Why should New York City taxpayers foot the health care bill for Walmart's employees while this company takes in the most revenue in the world?”

Walmart is looking to open its first stores in the city and could do so without the council's permission. It had been pushing employee health care coverage as one of the reasons New Yorkers should welcome it to town, touting its health plans on its walmartnyc website.

A company spokesman said that even with the cuts, its health care offerings “remain competitive with other large retailers and grocers currently doing business in the city.” Walmart insures more than 1 million workers, with single coverage costing workers only $15 per pay period, he said. The changes do not affect the retailer's 1.4 million current employees.

“As we continue to evaluate opportunities to open stores here, we'll also continue to provide some of the best jobs in retail all across the country,” the Walmart spokesman said.

Earlier this year, Ms. Quinn held two meetings with company officials to discuss whether the retail giant would source some of its produce from the Hunts Point market if it were to open stores in the city. The meetings raised the possibility that the speaker and Walmart might collaborate on food policy, a major but often overlooked part of her agenda and a growing focus of Walmart's.

But Friday's statement harkened back to the speaker's stringent anti-Walmart stance.

“Walmart may get away with these attacks on workers' rights in other parts of the country, but we won't stand for it in New York City,” Ms. Quinn said.

Her comments came a day after she met in her lower Manhattan office with current and former Walmart associates, who told her about problems they encountered in their employment by the company.

But despite the harsh words from the speaker—a longstanding Walmart critic and a likely 2013 mayoral candidate—there's little she can do to stop the retailer from opening shop here. She's unlikely to push legislation that would make it hard for the retailer to come and the company has said it is only considering sites that don't require City Council approval.

Walmart's benefit cuts were first reported Friday in the New York Times.

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